Calvinist Flyswatter

Founders' Image-Makeover?

Founders Ministries continues
its apparent image-makeover

Timmy Brister, the No. 2 Blogger-in-chief for the Founders Ministries, headed by Tom Ascol, has posted what appears to be at least a semi-penitent article. Brister -- whom we have often found reason to blister on the Flyswatter -- acknowledges his less than "honorable and mature" response in his past years of blogging against "non-Calvinists" whom he alleges have attacked the Founders' version of "Calvinism."

Brister says -- "Regrettably, I did not respond in ways that were honorable or mature. When the Lord dealt with me about my attitude and approach in my blogposts, I removed all that I felt where ad-hominem and disgraceful. I mourn over my arrogance and disrespectful attitude and publicly ask forgiveness from Johnny Hunt and others who deserved far more than I had delivered through my ill-conceived comments."

Brister's blundering boisterous blogging was one of the reasons the Flyswatter came to refer to the Founders as the "Flounders." His blogging was generally more of amusing novelty than anything else.

We will not "beat a dead horse" and rehash Brister's past blunders, but we will just say we are happy to see him hopefully take-a-turn-for-the-better. His recent expression of penitence will perhaps help to further the Founders' efforts in making-over their image.

Of course, all their talk about church planting, building bridges, erecting websites, and getting along with non-Calvinists will not really answer to what is really needed in the Founders. They should renounce their statement of purpose, disavow their Hybrid Calvinism, and completely disband their proselytizing sect.

They could then perhaps write another "Purpose" statement which promotes the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20, and possibly call themselves the "Great Commission Fellowship."

posted by Bob L. Ross @ 3:57 PM 2 comments

Founders' Revised Blog

Congratulations to the Founders
seem to be in order

I am in the habit of checking on the Founders Ministry blog to keep abreast of what their "reformation" is up-to. Lately, it seems that the Founders have changed their blog's heading, and they have apparently abandoned using the art drawings of several notable Baptists of past ages. I commend them for this change. The use of those drawings apparently was intended to allege that the Founders perpetuated the views of these outstanding Baptists of the past.

However, as we have demonstrated for the past few years (since early 2006), the Founders are not as representative of these men as they would apparently have you think. In fact, we find the Founders far more representative of Pedobaptist or Reformed Hybrid Calvinism than the theology of Baptists. It would have been more appropriate for the Founders to use art-drawings of Pedobaptist notables than of Baptist notables.

[NOTE, Oct. 13, 2010: Since posting this blog, I went back and retrieved a comment we published awhile back about this matter:

The Flounders would at least give some respectability to themselves if they changed those photos on their blog. Remove those Baptists whom they do not really represent, and put up photos of the following:

Ernest Reisinger
Iain Murray
Louis Berkhof
Tom Nettles
Tom Ascol
Bill Ascol
Fred Malone

These, I think, may more appropriately be called the "Founders." I think Murray and Berkhof should be there due to the influence of their Hybrid Calvinist theology on the Flounders. In fact, they might want to put photos of Pedos R. C. Sproul and Martyn Lloyd-Jones up there, too, since Ernie Reisinger cites their influence on his theology (Ernest Reisinger, A Biography, page 217). Iain Murray belongs there, if for no other reason than he "fathered" the anti-invitationalism for which the Flounders have become so well-known].

In view of the Founders' abandoning the use of Baptist figures on their blog, we feel it is in order to Congratulate them on the revision. A visit to their blog will now be far less agitating than we have hitherto experienced.

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posted by Bob L. Ross @ 1:08 PM 0 comments

Dr. Mohler and Yoga

Dr. R. Albert Mohler Takes on Yoga

Some may be wondering why a prestigious Seminary's president seems to be "all worked up" about Yoga. Has Yoga infiltrated the Seminary or the constituency of the Southern Baptist Convention?

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, president at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, has recently created somewhat of a furor about Yoga. See Al's latest comments here.

We are even more flabbergasted by Dr. Mohler's concern about Yoga when, to our knowledge, he has never raised his voice or pen about the Pedobaptist Hybrid Calvinism which is rampant at Southern. (See our earlier blog).

Mohler has "played footsies" with Pedobaptist scholars who teach that "coventant children" get regenerated in their mothers' wombs or shortly after their births, and he does not seem to be concerned about these errors. He has even had some of them [such as John Frame] to speak at SBTS and he has participated with them in "conferences," etc. Some of his graduates, such as Timmy Brister of the Founders Ministries, apparently have imbibed the Pedobaptist heresy of "born again before faith" [i. e. "regeneration precedes faith"]. See Brister's remarks here. Also here.

I doubt that Yoga is much of a threat to most Southern Baptists so as to hinder evangelism and church planting, but we have no doubts about the negative influence of the Hybrid Calvinism held by some of the Seminary profs and graduates.

posted by Bob L. Ross @ 5:57 PM 1 comments

Dr. Mohler and "Stalled" Church Planting

Dr. Mohler, the Louisville Seminary, and
"Stalled" Church Planting in the SBC

A recent cover story by Molly Worthen in Christianity Today (posted October 1, 2010) alleges that church planting in the Southern Baptist Convention has "stalled" since the conservative resurgence and during the years of Dr. R. Albert Mohler's tenure [from 1993] as president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville, Kentucky .

The article in CT by Molly Worthen says:

"Conservatives have conquered every major SBC body (with a few important exceptions, including Baylor University, whose moderate trustees broke from the SBC, and the Texas and Virginia state conventions, which remain in moderate control, forcing conservatives in those states to found their own conventions). Yet all is not well. Southern Baptist baptisms have fallen for the second year in a row, and everyone admits that the official membership tally—some 16 million—is a gross exaggeration of how many people show up in church on a given Sunday (perhaps by as much as half). Young people are leaving. Church-planting has stalled."

Is there a correlation between they type of theology on the New Birth taught at Southern Seminary and by other advocates (such as the Founders Ministries) of the Reformed Hybrid Calvinist delusion and the decrease in baptisms and church plantings? We think there is.

What part, if any, is this "stalling" due to what has gone on at the Louisville Seminary under Mohler's watch -- a period in which Mohler has been instrumental in the promotion of Hybrid Calvinism on the SBTS faculty?

This CT article is reminiscent of an article posted by Charles on April 28, 2006 in the Calvinist Flyswatter, entitled "Is Al Mohler Responsible for the SBC's Drop in Baptisms?" The article stated:

"Mohler has done a marvelous job in some ways. He has hired faculty that actually believe the Bible instead of paying lip service to it. I commend him for this. Unfortunately, Mohler went outside the SBC for much of his faculty hiring, and retained several professors who adhere to the heresy that a person must be born again before placing faith in Jesus Christ. Bob Ross and I have written about this extensively on this blog. . . . Dr. Mohler's seminary is churning out Blogging Calvinists and Reforming Calvinists but where are the church growing Southern Baptists? For the answer to why baptisms are down, Southern Baptists need to examine Southern Seminary and Dr. Al Mohler."

In his article, Charles cited several examples of how Mohler has been instrumental in promoting the Reformed non-creedal Hybrid Calvinist heresy of "pre-faith regeneration," or "born again before faith." See the original article. See another item here.

It has been observed by many that the Reformed Hybrid Calvinist teaching on the new birth appears to be lacking in promoting evangelism and church planting. [Note the remarks by Timmy Brister of the Founders Ministries in regard to his disappointing experience in the training he received at SBTS]. Those in the Pedobaptist Reformed camp who hold this non-creedal view on regeneration primarily depend upon infant baptism/infant church membership to grow and/or replenish their church rolls. They presume that the children born to church members are "covenant children" [i. e. elect] and get regenerated either before physical birth or shortly thereafter. There is very little evangelism to speak of among the Pedobaptist Reformed Hybrid Calvinists. See here and here and here. Southern Baptists, however, do not have the ecclesiastical luxury of relying upon the assumption that elect infants are born again either before physical birth or shortly thereafter. Rather, Southern Baptists who are faithful to our Baptist Confessions of Faith believe that the new birth is wrought by the Word and Spirit in which operation there is the creation of faith in Christ.

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posted by Bob L. Ross @ 7:45 PM 1 comments